Three-way race for district's seat is friendly but intense

While many of the state's House and Senate seats remain uncontested this election season, Democratic incumbent Theodore Raczka, Republican Dawn Adams and Libertarian James Madison are running a lively race for the 100th House District.

JOHN CHRISTIE

Published 1:00 am, Thursday, November 2, 2000

All three candidates noted the enthusiasm among district voters the election has generated and how their campaigns have maintained a focus on the issues instead of slinging mud.

"This is really an exciting campaign compared to most of the other races," Raczka said. "There is a real and substantive debate on the issues in this elections."

Adams said, "I'm really enthusiastic. The backing I've been getting is coming from all directions. It's not about Republicans and Democrats, but about who's the best person to bring their interests and concerns to the State Capital.

Madison said, "While I was petitioning to get on the ballot, I was surprised by how friendly and supportive people were. People here have a definite interest in third party candidates."

When asked about his first term as a representative, Raczka, a Middletown attorney, glowed with enthusiasm.

"This really has really energized me in every part of my life. Being a part of the state's great debates is really exciting," the 49-year-old said, noting when he heard Jesse Jackson speak during the Martin Luther King Day controversy in Wallingford.

Raczka points to service on the public health legislative committee, where he worked on the 1999 HMO reform bill that put timelines in place for insurers to respond to a bill from a provider, required insurers to cover prostate cancer screenings, and set up a hotline for consumers confused by their insurance policies.

Also, he noted "the smaller things I worked on that had a more direct impact on the district" such as getting the memorial highway on Rt. 17 for Middletown Catholic War Veterans and working legislation to solve safety problems at the Blue Ridge Gun Range in Durham.

"The bill died, but the process focused enough attention on them" that local sportsmen "went down there and fixed the problem," he said.

With another term, Raczka said he wants to lobby to "clean up the Filthy Five plants or shut them down," find an alternative drinking water source for Durham possibly through Middletown, and work to bring a Massachusetts state law to Connecticut requiring the recycling of computer equipment.

He hopes voters will remember "my commitment to the district and that I'll work harder for them in the upcoming two years.

"My learning curve is over. My best days as a legislator now lie ahead," he said.

Adams' campaign has been firmly focused on four main issues: bringing more education funding to the district, lowering the costs of health care, helping Durham and Middlefield find alternate clean water sources, and helping small local businesses grow.

The 30-year-old political newcomer said "Middletown and the 13th District is bursting at the seams..nd they can't focus on education if they're worrying about costs for a building."

In her talks with voters, Adams noted that the present issue of the rising costs of prescription drugs is at the forefront "not only among the elderly..ut across the board."

"My husband is diabetic and his prescription costs $313. If it wasn't for insurance we'd be working just to pay for his prescription," she said. "It is a serious problem when people have to make financial decisions instead of health decisions."

Adams, who works in her family's Wallingford-based business, Connecticut Fire Apparatus Sales & Service, said the high cost of health care and high taxes are just some of the problems hurting small businesses, which she hopes to address if elected.

"Connecticut has the highest cost for doing business in the country and we need to change that," she said. "You hear a lot about the budget surplus, but it's a tax surplus and it came from the people."

She advocated using the surplus to pay down Connecticut's debt, solidifying the "Rainy Day Fund," and then "giving the money back to the people who paid it" and streamlining state services to reduce redundancy.

If not elected, Adams vowed to return in 2002, saying her life-long civic work has instilled in her "a passion" to work for her community and remind legislators that their work "isn't [political] chess -- this is about people's lives."

"A lot of people ask me if I'm one of those candidates who will make a lot of promises I can't keep," she said "The only thing I can promise is that I will do everything I can for my district, and if I make a mistake I will do everything in my power to rectify it."

As the two major party candidates vie for the 100th District seat, Madison works to give voters "who want limited government on every issue a legitimate choice."

The 30-year-old computer programming consultant strongly advocates the Libertarian stance to get government involvement out of "personal choice issues" such as abortion, gay marriage and the right the die.

"These are intensely personal decisions, they should not be made by politicians," he said.

Madison also advocates limiting government involvement in private business, especially in the health care industry through mandates, which he argues is partly responsible for driving up insurance costs.

"[State] mandates on health insurance doesn't mean you get [certain items] for free, but you pay for it if want it or not," he said. "You can't opt out of it and that diminishes choice for consumers. If the politicians decide, the people can't.. would work to repeal such mandates."

Madison said the hopes to apply the philosophy of limited government to every issue from education through vouchers, so low-income parents can send their children to private schools, to campaign finance reform by allowing individual voters unlimited monetary contributions to candidates or parties, but banning contribution from organizations to limit special interests.

"The Democrats and Republicans each advocate government interference in different ways," he said. "I just want people to know that they have a choice."